5 ms·

3D Printer Built 10 Homes in 24 Hours

41 points by triberian 12y ago

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Built on pre-existing foundation. No kitchen nor bathroom in evidence. So for 2nd-world poor housing, maybe.
- joshlegs 12y ago
  3-d printed outhouse. boom, problem solved
- Lambdanaut 12y ago
  Right. The article refers to the fact that it may be of use to China's poor.
- bcoates 12y ago
  They're just ahead of the curve, a century from now people will be amazed that 20th century first-worlders went to so much expense and effort to bring filth and vermin as close as possible to where they live. Water isn't cleaning the fecal bacteria off the toothbrush you keep in the same room as your toilet, your wall-to-wall carpeting is full of food crumbs that roaches love, etc.
  - joshlegs 12y ago
    re: toothbrushes. Mythbusters did a pretty convincing job debunking this. as far as carpeting, sure it holds junk more than hardwood or tile, etc. But nobody's saying these folks should shag out their floors.
  - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
    I think there's a market for shared-bathroom shared-kitchen housing. Look at dorms, look at hotels in many countries.
- Crito 12y ago
  Without rebar, I am concerned with how well these structures hold up against earthquakes. There are places where earthquakes are not a significant consideration, but it is probably something that limits where this sort of tech could be deployed. Maybe there are alternative ways of increasing the tensile strength of the material that lend themselves to this sort of manufacturing. Incorporating some sort of fibrous material into the mix maybe?
lotsofmangos 12y ago
This is cool, it does seem unfortunate that Behrokh Khoshnevis and the University of Southern California haven't gone and done this already given how long they have been developing contour crafting, moon bases are great and all, but cheap housing is immediately practical and in dire need in California.
- bkmartin 12y ago
  California - You mean Everywhere, right? Because no state, province, country, etc is without a need for cheap housing.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    No, I was just meaning that there was a need relatively locally to where cement printing was under heavy development.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
Not sure why this is currently front page. They could have built even better houses had they used what is referred to around here as 'tilt-up' construction. You pour a concrete foundation, You stake out four wall forms around that foundation and pour in the walls, when they cure you tilt them up and tie the tops together with steel. Boom, "instant" building with windows and doors.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- bri3d 12y ago
  The approach is somewhat novel and interesting, and it's the first time I've seen photos of an actual end-to-end implementation of the "3D print a house!!" trope. I do agree that it's probably impractical, but I found the approach fun to think about. I also think this has a few advantages over tilt-up: 1) The resulting product is lighter, since the walls are mostly air rather than concrete. I suspect they could manufacture small houses at a factory and transport them by truck, without the construction overhead of other prefabricated home systems. 2) The end product probably insulates better. With the right internal design to try to limit air movement (and thus natural convective losses), these walls look like they could have a decent R-value. 3) Less space is required to print in-place or construct a manufacturing facility. Tilt-up requires enough space to pour the wall forms around the building in addition to room to utilize cranes and cherry pickers - an in-place gantry system for printing a house should only take (house+gantry) footprint rather than (house + height of house).
- brenschluss 12y ago
  Uh, because it's a new / interesting / powerful way of creating buildings that enables a vast degree of complexity and customization?
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    The previous discussion from Oct '13 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6628137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6628137) on these guys : http://www.industrytap.com/the-printer-that-can-print-a-house-in-20-hours/9056 http://www.industrytap.com/the-printer-that-can-print-a-hous... suggested an interesting powerful way of creating buildings. Looking at the article it appears this guy prints a concrete tube and then tilts it over on its side and puts windows/doors on either end. That seems to me to greatly restrict his complexity choices.
bri3d 12y ago
This design actually seems pretty interesting - one of the advantages of additive manufacturing by printing is that the resultant parts can be made with a strong internal structure (triangles, honeycombs, etc.) while still being made of mostly air, an outcome that's difficult to achieve using molding/casting, forging, or subtractive manufacturing (milling). I also suspect that the mostly-hollow walls have a decent R-value on their own. I do wonder how this competes with straw bale / rammed earth, shipping containers, and other recycled, rapid prefab building manufacturing. "Making cheap houses for the poor" seems to be a common design+architecture firm/student theme - does anyone know of any success/failure stories where these "cheap house" designs were applied in real life?
- stcredzero 12y ago
  Monolithic Domes did such a project in India. I have no idea how successful it turned out to be in the end.
- bkmartin 12y ago
  This is very promising and on its way to commercial availability http://www.ruralstudio.org/initiatives/20k-house http://www.ruralstudio.org/initiatives/20k-house
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > I do wonder how this competes with straw bale / rammed earth, shipping containers, and other recycled, rapid prefab building manufacturing. On labor? Much cheaper. And labor is typically the greatest cost.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    In First World countries, sure. In Third World countries, maybe not so much. A lot would depend on whether there was a local concrete industry. Edit: I'm not so sure that this is all that "eco-friendly" either -- cement production requires a lot of energy. That said, concrete is very durable (if made and poured properly) and might be a win in the long term.
antisocial 12y ago
The Latest - Miley Cyrus tweets from hospital Guess where you can find that on the front page? RYOT is exactly what an ideal news site should be.Hope it succeeds.
- chillingeffect 12y ago
  lol, did you also see "Check Out an Epic River Battle Between Hundreds of Hippos and Crocodiles" [alpha] [alpha]http://www.ryot.org/hippos-vs-crocodiles/644425 http://www.ryot.org/hippos-vs-crocodiles/644425
greesil 12y ago
If only they could print something for me, the sophisticated urbanite. I will be very impressed when a high-rise condo can get squirted out the business-end of this thing. Ah sweet: Future of Construction Process: 3D Concrete Printing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro
m0llusk 12y ago
No, this claim is false. Housing involves several major components: structure, exterior, services, and interior fittings. Most of the effort and expense goes into services with interior fittings just behind, but this process only handled the relatively easy elements of structure and exterior. Modular and panelized building methods already enable fast and cost efficient construction of structures and exteriors. The difficult and relevant problem is how to finish the building, not how to start it. That hype and even outright untruths are being offered as solutions to real problems in construction is troubling. Have we forgotten what it takes to make a solution that actually solves the problem at hand?
carlosrt 12y ago
The speed is what's impressive. One can build a structure in California for a similar price. It seems people often over estimate the hard costs of construction in the first world. It's cheaper than people think. In 2005, at the height of the building boom (labor was scarce) in Southern California, I built a 400 sq ft detached garage: Stucco, rolled composite roof, concrete slab, drywall, swiss coffee interior paint, garage door, and 30R insulation in the ceiling (well insulated). Using all contracted labor. Total cost: $5,500. IOW, not much more than this 3D printed house. Building a house in 2.4 hours is the impressive part.

41 points by triberian 12y ago

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

Built on pre-existing foundation. No kitchen nor bathroom in evidence. So for 2nd-world poor housing, maybe.

joshlegs 12y ago
3-d printed outhouse. boom, problem solved
Lambdanaut 12y ago
Right. The article refers to the fact that it may be of use to China's poor.
bcoates 12y ago
They're just ahead of the curve, a century from now people will be amazed that 20th century first-worlders went to so much expense and effort to bring filth and vermin as close as possible to where they live. Water isn't cleaning the fecal bacteria off the toothbrush you keep in the same room as your toilet, your wall-to-wall carpeting is full of food crumbs that roaches love, etc.
- joshlegs 12y ago
  re: toothbrushes. Mythbusters did a pretty convincing job debunking this. as far as carpeting, sure it holds junk more than hardwood or tile, etc. But nobody's saying these folks should shag out their floors.
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  I think there's a market for shared-bathroom shared-kitchen housing. Look at dorms, look at hotels in many countries.
Crito 12y ago
Without rebar, I am concerned with how well these structures hold up against earthquakes. There are places where earthquakes are not a significant consideration, but it is probably something that limits where this sort of tech could be deployed. Maybe there are alternative ways of increasing the tensile strength of the material that lend themselves to this sort of manufacturing. Incorporating some sort of fibrous material into the mix maybe?

lotsofmangos 12y ago

This is cool, it does seem unfortunate that Behrokh Khoshnevis and the University of Southern California haven't gone and done this already given how long they have been developing contour crafting, moon bases are great and all, but cheap housing is immediately practical and in dire need in California.

bkmartin 12y ago
California - You mean Everywhere, right? Because no state, province, country, etc is without a need for cheap housing.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  No, I was just meaning that there was a need relatively locally to where cement printing was under heavy development.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

Not sure why this is currently front page. They could have built even better houses had they used what is referred to around here as 'tilt-up' construction. You pour a concrete foundation, You stake out four wall forms around that foundation and pour in the walls, when they cure you tilt them up and tie the tops together with steel. Boom, "instant" building with windows and doors.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
bri3d 12y ago
The approach is somewhat novel and interesting, and it's the first time I've seen photos of an actual end-to-end implementation of the "3D print a house!!" trope. I do agree that it's probably impractical, but I found the approach fun to think about. I also think this has a few advantages over tilt-up: 1) The resulting product is lighter, since the walls are mostly air rather than concrete. I suspect they could manufacture small houses at a factory and transport them by truck, without the construction overhead of other prefabricated home systems. 2) The end product probably insulates better. With the right internal design to try to limit air movement (and thus natural convective losses), these walls look like they could have a decent R-value. 3) Less space is required to print in-place or construct a manufacturing facility. Tilt-up requires enough space to pour the wall forms around the building in addition to room to utilize cranes and cherry pickers - an in-place gantry system for printing a house should only take (house+gantry) footprint rather than (house + height of house).
brenschluss 12y ago
Uh, because it's a new / interesting / powerful way of creating buildings that enables a vast degree of complexity and customization?
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  The previous discussion from Oct '13 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6628137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6628137) on these guys : http://www.industrytap.com/the-printer-that-can-print-a-house-in-20-hours/9056 http://www.industrytap.com/the-printer-that-can-print-a-hous... suggested an interesting powerful way of creating buildings. Looking at the article it appears this guy prints a concrete tube and then tilts it over on its side and puts windows/doors on either end. That seems to me to greatly restrict his complexity choices.

bri3d 12y ago

This design actually seems pretty interesting - one of the advantages of additive manufacturing by printing is that the resultant parts can be made with a strong internal structure (triangles, honeycombs, etc.) while still being made of mostly air, an outcome that's difficult to achieve using molding/casting, forging, or subtractive manufacturing (milling). I also suspect that the mostly-hollow walls have a decent R-value on their own. I do wonder how this competes with straw bale / rammed earth, shipping containers, and other recycled, rapid prefab building manufacturing. "Making cheap houses for the poor" seems to be a common design+architecture firm/student theme - does anyone know of any success/failure stories where these "cheap house" designs were applied in real life?

stcredzero 12y ago
Monolithic Domes did such a project in India. I have no idea how successful it turned out to be in the end.
bkmartin 12y ago
This is very promising and on its way to commercial availability http://www.ruralstudio.org/initiatives/20k-house http://www.ruralstudio.org/initiatives/20k-house
toomuchtodo 12y ago
> I do wonder how this competes with straw bale / rammed earth, shipping containers, and other recycled, rapid prefab building manufacturing. On labor? Much cheaper. And labor is typically the greatest cost.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  In First World countries, sure. In Third World countries, maybe not so much. A lot would depend on whether there was a local concrete industry. Edit: I'm not so sure that this is all that "eco-friendly" either -- cement production requires a lot of energy. That said, concrete is very durable (if made and poured properly) and might be a win in the long term.

antisocial 12y ago

The Latest - Miley Cyrus tweets from hospital Guess where you can find that on the front page? RYOT is exactly what an ideal news site should be.Hope it succeeds.

chillingeffect 12y ago
lol, did you also see "Check Out an Epic River Battle Between Hundreds of Hippos and Crocodiles" [alpha] [alpha]http://www.ryot.org/hippos-vs-crocodiles/644425 http://www.ryot.org/hippos-vs-crocodiles/644425

greesil 12y ago

If only they could print something for me, the sophisticated urbanite. I will be very impressed when a high-rise condo can get squirted out the business-end of this thing. Ah sweet: Future of Construction Process: 3D Concrete Printing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro

m0llusk 12y ago

No, this claim is false. Housing involves several major components: structure, exterior, services, and interior fittings. Most of the effort and expense goes into services with interior fittings just behind, but this process only handled the relatively easy elements of structure and exterior. Modular and panelized building methods already enable fast and cost efficient construction of structures and exteriors. The difficult and relevant problem is how to finish the building, not how to start it. That hype and even outright untruths are being offered as solutions to real problems in construction is troubling. Have we forgotten what it takes to make a solution that actually solves the problem at hand?

carlosrt 12y ago

The speed is what's impressive. One can build a structure in California for a similar price. It seems people often over estimate the hard costs of construction in the first world. It's cheaper than people think. In 2005, at the height of the building boom (labor was scarce) in Southern California, I built a 400 sq ft detached garage: Stucco, rolled composite roof, concrete slab, drywall, swiss coffee interior paint, garage door, and 30R insulation in the ceiling (well insulated). Using all contracted labor. Total cost: $5,500. IOW, not much more than this 3D printed house. Building a house in 2.4 hours is the impressive part.